8. Maturation of minor league sports ticketing

January 15, 2018

Historically, major league sports ticketing has operated in a vastly different universe than minor league sports. While dominant players such as Ticketmaster and StubHub and their advanced tech-driven features and multimillion-dollar deals have moved the big league market, minor league levels of baseball and hockey and other sports have still relied heavily on traditional paper and print-at-home tickets serviced by smaller entities such as Glitnir Ticketing and TicketReturn.com.

This, too, is changing quickly. Minor League Baseball last summer signed a multiyear agreement with MLB Advanced Media-owned Tickets.com, the first league-level ticketing deal for the affiliated minors. The agreement was premised heavily on implementing features such as digital ticketing, real-time analytics and virtual seat views. Subscription-based offers are also being discussed.